Follow Us
Subscribe
Head Coach Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers have always been known as a tough, blue collar team. Breiden Fehoko fits the mold on position alone.
The third-year Fehoko is a 6-foot-3, 300 pound nose tackle from Louisiana State University. He is expected to add depth at defensive tackle this season, but not likely to start according to the team's latest projected depth chart.
As the Steelers look to add Chase Young or other help along the defensive line, the nose tackle position is in the crosshairs. Fehoko believes it is a dying breed.
“It’s kind of turning into the old fullback position,” he said via SteelersDepot.com. “You don’t know you need it until you need it. I think it’s a fallen art. I think everybody just kind of recruits tackles nowadays. When you throw ‘nose’ in front of the ‘tackle,’ everybody thinks, like, a bigger body, a wide type, Vince Wilfork or Casey Hampton.”
The Steelers plan on starting two big-bodied defensive ends in Larry Ogunjobi and Cam Heyward, a microcosm of the trend around the league.
Fehoko, 26, said he takes his job as nose tackle seriously and emphasizes stopping running backs between the tackles. Last season, he had 23 total tackles but did not record a sack. He had four ‘stuffs' on the season, a stat that denotes when a ballcarrier is hit at or behind the line of scrimmage.
“I take a lot of pride in that,” he said. “I take a lot of pride in making sure there’s no running between the tackles. I take a lot of pride in putting my hands on the center, making sure he doesn’t climb up to the linebacker.”